but if there's no deal and the country goes over that fiscal cliff, taxes go up for everyone, mandatory spending cuts go into effect, a lot of folks are going to say where was the president? he was just re-elected. why couldn't he put together a package, a deal to avoid this disaster? >> i think this is a question of political leadership. and as that poll showed, there's no doubt that the president has the political advantage going into this. but at some point, and i think we're kind of getting close to it, the president has to be able to pivot and to say how do i turn this political advantage into a real policy accomplishment? and, wolf, i don't think you're going to do that with continued campaign style events like we just saw meeting with middle class families. okay. we get that. that occurred during the campaign. the white house has clearly gotten its message out. i think now there has to be a next step. you know, timing is everything in politics. and this is absolutely no different. what i'm getting from talking to some democrats on the hill is i think there's actually a lot of pen